The History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group was established in 1990 as the Wellcome Trust’s History of Twentieth Century Medicine Group. In October 2010 it moved to the School of History, Queen Mary University of London, where it is supported by a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award to Professor Tilli Tansey. In developing and strengthening links between members of the biomedical research community and medical historians, the Group played – and continues to play – a prominent role in promoting and facilitating the study of the history of twentieth-century medicine and medical science by encouraging the creation and deposit of material sources for use by present and future historians.
Items the Group has contributed to MHL include 45 Witness Seminars, at which 20th century medical figures were invited to discuss and comment on significant discoveries or events in recent medical history. The latest of these, ‘Palliative Medicine in the UK c.1970–2010’, has just been published. Also covered are topics as diverse as the discovery of monoclonal antibodies, obstetric ultrasound and Rhesus factor; the development of specialties such as medical physics, intensive care and clinical pharmacology, and advances in asthma, psychopharmacology, cancer treatment and haemophilia. Participants have included Nobel Laureates, scientists and clinicians, in addition to technicians, funders, journalists and patients. Furthermore, the ‘Today’s Neuroscience, Tomorrow’s History’ oral history series, which features video recordings with prominent neuroscientists talking about their lives and work, has also been donated to MHL.
The Medical Heritage Library (MHL) is a content centered digital community supporting research, education, and dialog that enables the history of medicine to contribute to a deeper understanding of human health and society. It serves as the point of access to a valuable body of quality curated digital materials and to the broader digital and nondigital holdings of its members. It was established in 2010 with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation via the Open Knowledge Common to digitize 30,000 medical rare books. MHL principal contributors are Johns Hopkins University, New York Academy of Medicine, the New York Public Library, and the Wellcome Library. The MHL has since grown to include content contributors Duke University, the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Lamar Soutter Library, the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library at the University of California, San Francisco, Brandeis University, and the Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto.